EDITORIAL POLICY African Notebooks of Rhetoric is a journal that publishes research addressing the studies of discourse analysis, linguistics, stylistics, of literature and communication and now decides to publish the thematic studies from 2026 and applies the current ethical code of research of the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education in Francophone countries. It hosts studies by researchers from around the world interested in analyzing the linguistic, rhetorical, and communicational aspects of Africa. Its fields covered are works in language sciences, particularly open disciplines such as linguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis, literature, and communication. Its mission is to publish high-quality work in the aforementioned fields. To this end, it welcomes original articles and aims to be an international journal dedicated to understanding oral and textual corpora in the fields of discourse analysis, linguistics and literature in Africa. However, it also welcomes work from other parts of the world that falls within the scope of its editorial policy. It pursues the following objectives: - a) help researchers from the CAMES space to access quality scientific publications, - b) ensure the scientific evaluation of work by rejecting the least relevant - c) accept papers making a significant and relevant contribution in its covered disciplines. Libre Accès et Copyright: © African Books of Rhetoric is a journal under the auspices of the Université Marien Ngouabi, which is part of the policy of open access to scientific and technical information. Indeed, the marketing of items is strictly prohibited. Its editorial policy and articles are accessible online, to be cited according to the Code of the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES) on Intellectual Property. The journal, in scientific cooperation with researchers from CAMES universities, works according to the provisions of the ethical, editorial and confidentiality charter of this organization and its highest standards. Furthermore, the opinions expressed in articles respect the framework of scientific debate and are solely the responsibility of their author. According to the CAMES deontological and ethical rules in force in the field of research, any scientific fraud (such as plagiarism, self-plagiarization, submission of artificially generated texts or withdrawal of an article proposal without prior notification to the Editorial Office) will be reported to the academic and professional institutions associated with the author of the proposal. Any non-compliant procedure leads to the automatic rejection of the text as well as the termination of the collaboration. TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu German Maltese Vietnamese Greek Norwegian Welsh Haitian Creole Persian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW <!--a id="TwitterLink" title="Share on Twitter"> <a-- id="FacebookLink" title="Share on Facebook"> </a--> Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back
Attribution - No Commercial Use - No Modification 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu German Maltese Vietnamese Greek Norwegian Welsh Haitian Creole Persian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW <!--a id="TwitterLink" title="Share on Twitter"> <a-- id="FacebookLink" title="Share on Facebook"> </a--> Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back
Linguistic Aspects of Diplomatic Language in Vladimir Putin’s Speeches: An Analysis of Discursive and Rhetorical Strategies
This article examines Vladimir Putin's diplomatic discourse, from the rhetorical shift initiated in Munich in 2007 to the addresses justifying the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as a privileged object for political linguistics. This discourse follows a coherent rhetorical architecture, mobilized as an instrument of power and legitimation. The article therefore aims to identify the linguistic mechanisms through which this discourse constructs an alternative reality and legitimizes the use of force, and to assess its distinctiveness through comparison with other world leaders. Methodologically, the study draws on a pluridisciplinary framework combining discourse analysis (Fairclough, van Dijk), speech act theory (Austin, Searle), conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson), and the pragmatics of irony (Grice, Sperber and Wilson), applied to a corpus of official speeches from 2007 and 2022, set against addresses by Obama, Macron, Xi Jinping, and Zelensky. The results highlight the systematic recourse to euphemism (Russian "newspeak"), the strategic use of irony and sarcasm as diplomatic weapons, the deployment of structuring conceptual metaphors, and the reactivation of "Sovietisms"; the comparative analysis further reveals a discursive asymmetry combining grammatical impersonality, biting irony, and systemic justification. This structurally distinguishes Russian discourse from that of other major powers. These findings illustrate the performativity of a discourse that seeks less to convince through factual truth than to sow doubt, assert authority, and impose a new reality — making language, within the Putinian paradigm, a field of argumentative battle.
discourse analysis, diplomatic language, euphemism, conceptual metaphor, pragmatics, political rhetoric, Putin, newspeak, Sovietisms, comparative linguistics.
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Discourse as disjunctive virtualization between here and elsewhere in “Le Ventre de l’Atlantique” by Fatou Diome
In the semiotic approach, the question of discourse appears as an essential postulate. Its analysis allows us to construct, identify, define and deploy the different layers of the meaning of a statement. According to Jacques Fontanille (2003), the different inflections of discourse generate the production of signifying forms. Subsequent to this meaning, we recognize the discourse's capacity to actualize representations. From this perception, the question of virtualization as a projection of a potentially realizable reality cannot depart from the enunciation of the actants engaged in a narrative program where space profoundly determines the meaning of the discourse. If we relate this observation to the work of Fatou Diome, we understand more easily the disjunction between two spaces, between two social realities and between two universes whose actants are nevertheless so close in an adelphic manner. In this communication, we will see how, from the semiotic approach, we can analyze the question of spatial disjunction in the discourse of the actors and put this reality into perspective with virtualization which appears as a promise, a lure, a chimera
Discourse, Disjunction, Enunciation, Spaces, Virtualization
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The proverbial and narrated speech among the Agni: factors of social and cultural cohesion
Proverbial and talling among the Agni : factors of social and cultural cohesion Among the Agni, tales and proverbs are the means, for excellence, of education and social cohesion, and are imbued with their culture. Through a socio-critical and thematic analysis, it is necessary to understand the functioning of these oral arts among this people. The study shows that the two genres manifest peace, love, living together, solidarity, and many other normative values that are important to promote and popularize in an individualistic and wicked world. Speech, the backbone of this study, is displayed and forms the basis of all societal actions. Everything is conceived by it and with it. Without speech, everything becomes vile and inactive. This is why, through it, Man must learn and understand the phenomena and problems that undermine societies in order to rebuild a stronger, fairer world where equity, truth, transparency, respect, and love for one's neighbor take precedence above all else
Proverbial and storytelling, Agni people, Social cohesion, Cultural factor, Vision
This paper examines the syntactic distribution of verb adjuncts in Mbere, a Bantu language spoken in Congo-Brazzaville. It aims to identify the categories that function as verb adjuncts in Mbere and to determine whether their movement within the sentence obeys a universal principle of free recursiveness or is instead constrained by parametric variation. Data were collected through participant and non-participant observation, interviews, and introspection, and the analysis is conducted within Chomsky’s Minimalist Program (MP). The results show that adjuncts in Mbere are realized as adverbial phrases (AdvPs) and prepositional phrases (PPs). When the adjunct merges as an adverb, its distribution depends on the type of adjunct. If it is a temporal adverb, the distribution is free (final, middle, and initial positions). However, if it belongs to another category of adverb, the only attested position is final. If the adjunct occurs as a prepositional phrase, it can merge either in final or initial position, but not in the middle. These findings indicate that the recursiveness of adjuncts is not a universal property but rather a parametric one: in some languages their distribution is free, while in others, such as Mbere, their distribution is subject to specific distributional constraints.
adjuncts, merger, movement, Mbere, distribution.
Media framings of Congolese diplomacy in Les Dépêches de Brazzaville and La Semaine Africaine
This article examines the media framing of Congolese diplomacy across two structurally distinct newspapers: Les Dépêches de Brazzaville (LDB), a daily close to institutional circles, and La Semaine Africaine (LSA), a Catholic biweekly with a more analytical orientation. Drawing on R. M. Entman's (1993) concept of framing alongside insights from political communication, information society studies, and postcolonial approaches, the study is based on a systematic content analysis of 334 issues (270 for LDB, 64 for LSA), collected across eight waves between January 2025 and June 2026, using a common grid of thirteen indicators. The findings show that LDB favours a protocolary and institutional coverage, marked by strong front-page visibility and a predominance of official quotations, whereas LSA adopts a more critical framing, but only in the wake of confirmed diplomatic setbacks, such as the failure of Congo's UNESCO candidacy. This divergence, conditional rather than structural, qualifies the hypothesis of a binary opposition between the two outlets and sheds light on the media construction of Congolese diplomatic soft power.
media framing; Congolese diplomacy; Les Dépêches de Brazzaville; La Semaine Africaine; content analysis.
The Syntactic analysis of Koyo compound toponyms
This paper presents a syntactic analysis of Koyo toponyms. It aims to identify the different categories of Koyo toponyms and to determine the syntactic patterns underlying their formation. Data were collected by questionnaire and interviews with native speakers of Koyo, and the analysis follows the Minimalist Program developed by Chomsky (1995 and subsequent work). The results show that Koyo toponyms share the same syntactic properties as other Determiner Phrases in the language in terms of collocation and merger, and that they fall into two basic types: phrasal toponyms and sentential toponyms. At the phrasal level, six patterns are attested: Noun+Noun, Noun+Preposition+Noun,Adjective+Noun,Noun+Number,Noun+Preposition+Adjective, and Quantifier+Noun. At the sentential level, Koyo toponyms take the form of simple sentences (imperative) or compound sentences (coordinate or subordinate clauses). These findings show that Koyo toponyms are not an isolated naming system but a crystallized subset of the ordinary phrase- and clause-structure of the language, in which syntax simultaneously encodes geographical reference and cultural memory.
syntactic analysis, Koyo toponym, phrasal toponym, sentential toponym, merger.
Diplomatic Language in Sony Labou Tansi’s La Vie et demie: Critique, Resistance, and Postcolonialism
This article offers an in-depth analysis of diplomatic language in Sony Labou Tansi’s La Vie et demie (1979), revealing its protocolary, rhetorical, neocolonial and resistant functions. Through a pragmatic, discursive and postcolonial reading, it highlights how official discourse, in all its complexity, serves both to legitimise tyranny, conceal violence and provide spaces for resistance. Labou Tansi’s writing unveils the performative dimension of totalitarian discourse, whilst exploring its subversive potential. The staging of rituals, formulae, metaphors and codes illustrates the dual dynamics of power : its construction and its challenge. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that diplomatic language, within the novel, is a central issue in resistance and the postcolonial struggle for symbolic sovereignty.
diplomatic language, tyranny, postcolonialism, pragmatics, resistance, official discourse, parody.
Diplomatic Language as a Space of Power and Resistance in Henri Lopes’s Le Lys et le flamboyant
Cet article analyse le langage diplomatique comme dispositif tridimensionnel institutionnel, idéologique et stratégique dans Le Lys et le flamboyant (1997) d'Henri Lopes, ancien diplomate et Premier ministre du Congo-Brazzaville. A partir d'un corpus de quarante et une occurrences classées en sept catégories typologiques (protocole cérémonial, rhétorique révolutionnaire, esquive diplomatique, discours colonial officiel, négociation, langue des médias officiels, déférence codifiée), l'analyse mobilise la pragmatique de l'énonciation (Austin, Grice, Searle), la sociologie du langage (Bourdieu) et l'analyse du discours postcolonial (Said, Mbembe, Mudimbe). Les résultats montrent une continuité structurale entre discours colonial officiel et rhétorique postcoloniale, et caractérisent le contre-discours de Kolele comme une pratique métalinguistique qui retourne les codes du pouvoir langagier contre eux-mêmes. Le roman lopesien est lu comme un dispositif critique unique, rendu possible par la position singulière de l'auteur-diplomate. TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu German Maltese Vietnamese Greek Norwegian Welsh Haitian Creole Persian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW <!--a id="TwitterLink" title="Share on Twitter"> <a-- id="FacebookLink" title="Share on Facebook"> </a--> Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back
diplomatic language; speech act theory; postcolonial discourse; Francophone African literature; Henri Lopes; discursive resistance; sub-Saharan Africa
Parliamentary Diplomacy and Artificial Intelligence in the Republic of the Congo: Institutional Communication, Ethical Issues, and Digital Sovereignty (2012–2026)
This article examines the transformations brought about by artificial intelligence (AI) in parliamentary communication in the Republic of Congo, from the 13th to the 15th legislature (2012–2026). Drawing on the theory of uses (De Certeau, Perriault, Jouet, Proulx) and four complementary theoretical frameworks political communication, digital governance, digital diplomacy, and the ethics of technology, it investigates how Congolese legislative institutions appropriate digital tools and AI to modernise their communicational practices. The central research question concerns the conditions and limits of this transformation: while the integration of AI enhances the dissemination of parliamentary information and strengthens institutional transparency, it simultaneously generates ethical risks misinformation, algorithmic bias, inadequate legal regulation and challenges to digital sovereignty stemming from technological dependence on major global digital powers. The analysis reveals that the Congolese Parliament has undergone several significant stages of digitalisation since 2012, while remaining constrained by an internal digital divide and an insufficiently developed legislative framework. The article further demonstrates that Congolese parliamentary diplomacy, strengthened by digital tools within the APF and IPU frameworks, is positioned to play an increasingly important role in the international governance of AI, provided that strategic autonomy is preserved.
artificial intelligence, parliamentary communication, parliamentary diplomacy, digital ethics, digital sovereignty, digital governance, Congo-Brazzaville.
Subjectivizing adjectives as a mode of diplomatic language in Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema’s address to the 80th session of theUnited Nations General Assembly
Our analytical approach draws on the discourse analysis frameworks developed by C. Kramsch (1991) and by P. Charaudeau and D. Maingueneau (2002). We apply this approach to the study of adjectives to demonstrate their subjective weight within diplomatic discourse—specifically, the address delivered by Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema during the debate at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Our study reveals that this diplomatic style conveys significant subjectivity, discernible through two categories: qualifying adjectives and determinative adjectives. These categories serve as markers of a subjective perspective, allowing the Gabonese president to assert his presence within the discourse. They aim, on the one hand, to legitimize his coup d’état—framed euphemistically as a "liberation coup"—and, on the other, to denounce the injustices perpetrated by major international bodies like the UN against minor powers, such as African nations. The analysis uncovers various adjectival connotations (both positive and negative) as well as stylistic nuances expressing deference, irritation, solidarity, or a shared destiny. A predominance of adjectives conveying positive value over those with negative connotations emerges from the data. This linguistic choice anchors the address in a diplomatic rhetoric that aligns with African values ​​of respect, courtesy, and politeness.
diplomatic rhetoric, discourse analysis, adjectives, subjectivation, speech.
Traces of the Diplomatic World in Le Mort-Vivant by Henri Djombo
This study examines the manifestations of diplomatic practices in the novel The Living Dead by Henri Djombo. Shewants to be a hermeneutic of the text and is interested in the way Henri Djombo, in his capacity as former ambassador, immerses the reader in the universe of diplomatic representations, in order to make him discover the twists and turns and the avatars of the arcana of African diplomacy. She analyzes two diplomatic spheres whose invariants and partitionsdo not intersect and do not intermingle in a structural and philosophical logic: one modern, placed under the architectural fittings of the Western world, the other customary, exploring secular endogenous knowledge to settledisputes. The objective is to show that Henri Djombo uses his knowledge, his know-how, and the nuanced and coded lexicon of the diplomatic world to build the fabric of his narrative. The study is built around the following questions: howdoes Henri Djombo represent the modern diplomatic world for himself? What is the perception of customary diplomacy compared to the so-called modern one? Within the framework of this study, we opt for the interdisciplinary approach by summoning the theories of sociocritics, international relations, sociology of characters and hermeneutics. Our reflectionrevolves around three axes: the precariousness and the expressive language of the diplomatic universe, the opprobrium generated by the setback of fortune of the profession of diplomat and the ideal cultural diplomacy.
diplomatic world, precariousness, customary diplomacy, literary hermeneutics, satire.
Aspects of Diplomatic Stylistic Devices in the Speeches of Jean-Claude Gakosso
Diplomatic discourse systematically employs metaphor, a device whose persuasive function transcends mere stylistic ornamentation. This article aims to propose a functional—rather than merely lexical—classification of the metaphors used by Jean-Claude Gakosso, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Congo (2015–2026), in three full speeches delivered during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly (73rd session, 2018; 76th session, 2021; 77th session, 2022). Methodologically, rather than grouping the identified metaphors by source domain (architecture, the body, fire, paths) as a previous study has done we reclassify them according to the argumentative and persuasive functions they serve: legitimation, disqualification, dramatization, mobilization, valorization, and depersonalization. This typology is grounded in Aristotle’s three rhetorical proofs (ethos, pathos, logos) and Brown and Levinson’s theory of indirect politeness strategies (1987). The analysis reveals a coherent persuasive structure in which the function of mobilization clearly predominates (27% of occurrences), followed—equally—by legitimation and disqualification (21% each), and then by dramatization (18%) and valorization (15%). We maintain that this distribution reflects a diplomacy that structurally prioritizes calls to action over description or direct accusation, and which delegitimizes its implicit adversaries without ever naming them.
diplomatic language, metaphor, argumentative rhetoric, ethos, pathos, logos, linguistic politeness, Jean-Claude Gakosso, United Nations.
Diplomacy through Speech: Mbochi Tradition and the Sassou N'Guesso Doctrine in the Congo (1979–2026)
Published in 1997, at the turning point of its author's return to power following a civil war, Le manguier, le fleuve et la souris is at once a life narrative and a statement of foreign policy, written by a Congolese head of state who has led his country for nearly half a century. Drawing on the text itself, this article reconstructs the diplomatic doctrine that Denis Sassou N'Guesso claims therein. It then tests this doctrine against the independent historiography of the episodes it recounts, as well as against the diplomacy actually conducted by the Republic of Congo since the mid-2020s. I draw on the theoretical framework of the "politics of the belly" and neopatrimonialism (Bayart, Médard), together with African oral traditions of conflict resolution through speech, palabre, mbongi, kanza, in order to interrogate the legitimizing function proper to autobiographical writing. The analysis shows that the book sets out a doctrine built around four stable pillars: a balance between rival powers rather than exclusive alignment, regional mediation converted into political capital, African regionalism claimed as an alternative to external tutelage, and a renegotiated rather than severed partnership with France. To these is added a fifth, more diffuse yet equally coherent trait: the articulation of this doctrine in the idiom of African palabre, and specifically of the Mbochi kanza, which lends Congolese mediation a distinct cultural legitimacy. This doctrine continues, for the most part, to structure contemporary Congolese diplomacy, even as the text performs a narrative selection that minimizes the episodes least compatible with the image of a disinterested mediator it seeks to construct. Le manguier, le fleuve et la souris should not, therefore, be read as a treatise on international relations to be taken at face value. It nonetheless deserves to be taken seriously as a first-hand historical document and as an object of study of a personalist diplomacy, one rooted in a grammar of speech, whose coherence exceeds the personality of its author alone.
Palabre, Denis Sassou N'Guesso, Congo, African diplomacy, françafrique
The Personalization of Diplomatic Discourse: The Significance of Emmanuel Macron’s Address
This article looks at 'Personalizing Diplomatic Speech: The Scope of Emmanuel Macron's Address.' The goal is to interpret how the speaker positions himself in his statement in order to understand the value he places on his compatriots living in Congo-Brazzaville. The study corpus consists of textual segments marked by the recurring use of the first-person pointer 'I,' which is the go-to marker of the speaker's imprint. To carry out this study, we used enunciative and presuppositional approaches, which are particularly good at capturing the implicit content conveyed by deictics. The linguistic analysis shows that President Emmanuel Macron fully owns his speech, demonstrating strong personal involvement and clear regard for this community.
Personalization, diplomatic discourse, address, involvement
An enunciative and rhetorical study of the "diplomatic 'we'" based on the case of Denis Sassou N'Guesso: Major speeches from the first seven-year term (2002–2009) Claudia Lemboumba Sassou N'Guesso
This article analyzes the diplomatic "we" in speeches delivered by President Denis Sassou Nguesso (hereinafter DSN) during his first seven-year term (2002–2009). The study examines the use of the pronoun "we" and the possessives "our" (notre/nos), through which the individual speaker (the President) effaces himself in favor of one or more collective entities such as the Congolese people, Central Africa, the African continent, or the international community the contours of which vary depending on the speaking context. Adopting an enunciative approach, the text explores how the pronoun "we" constructs DSN’s ethos.
Writing Cultural Memory in the Novel: The Sceptre of Authenticity by Makliwè Adaki
African culture in step with the suggestions of democracy. The African culture, in which men and women were forged to become the repository of the timeless values ​of courage, tact; truth; justice; and prodigality that nothing can tamper with, is dying in the face of modernity, which agitates money, power, material goods, and sex as values, and which are incompatible with African culture. African identity, now insipid, needs to rise from its ashes, and the novel The Scepter of Authenticity, which distills the flavor of African authenticity, serves as a benchmark for Africans whose modernity drowns out any authentic form of identity capable of a qualitative leap for an authentic African world. Adaki's The Scepter of Authenticity is an initiatory tale in which Solim, who reclaims his culture thanks to his monk uncle, symbolizes the urgent need for the modern African world to connect with the wealth of endogenous knowledge that is compatible in every respect and offers possibilities of adaptability for total and integrated development. To carry out our analysis, we will focus on Claude Duchet's sociocriticism to highlight the text's sociolect in the dynamics of identity authenticity.
African identity, identity crisis, cultural identity, modernity
The Diplomacy of Marien Ngouabi: The Rhetoric of a Unity Revolutionary Foreign Policy (1969–1977)
This article analyzes the diplomatic discourse of Marien Ngouabi, president of the People's Republic of the Congo from 1969 to 1977, drawing on the collection of his speeches and writings Vers la construction d'une société socialiste en Afrique (Présence Africaine, 1975). Rather than reconstructing the factual history of Congolese foreign policy, the article identifies its underlying rhetoric: the enunciative categories, figures, and speech acts through which a young state, born of an internal revolutionary rupture, constructs its place among nations. The study distinguishes four interlocking discursive regimes the diplomacy of rupture, the ethos of Third-World and pan-African solidarity, socialist alignment tempered by an assertive non-alignment, and pragmatic ambivalence toward the former colonial power before examining how pronominal enunciation, particularly the diplomatic "we", constructs a collective ethos of spokesmanship. The analysis shows that Ngouabi's diplomacy, far from being a mechanical application of Marxism-Leninism, operates as a rhetoric of coherence, continually reconciling the radicalism of anti-imperialist discourse with the material constraints of a small dependent state through an enunciative labor of compensation this article seeks to typologize.
diplomatic discourse, Marien Ngouabi, Congo-Brazzaville, political rhetoric, non-alignment, pan-Africanism, enunciation.
Special issue on the rhetorical techniques of diplomatic language
Trump, or the breaking of diplomatic codes in political language
International diplomacy has been built since Callières and Nicolson around durable norms: lexical caution, enunciative neutrality, and institutional courtesy. Donald Trump’s election to the presidency of the United States in January 2017 upended these centuries-old conventions by imposing a personalized, confrontational, and intensely mediatized communication style, driven notably by an unprecedented use of Twitter (now X). This article examines this unprecedented rupture in diplomatic language. The objective of this research is to identify the linguistic, pragmatic, and argumentative mechanisms through which Trump’s discourse transgresses the classical diplomatic communication contract theorized by Charaudeau, and to assess whether this transgression reflects a passing individual style or a deeper shift in political language in the digital age. Four hypotheses guide the study: the substitution of intentional verbal confrontation for classical diplomatic courtesy; the rise of an immediate, emotional, and disintermediated diplomacy driven by social media; lexical simplification spectacularizing diplomatic discourse; and personalization turning interstate relations into interactions between leaders. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative discourse-analysis approach applied to a corpus of presidential speeches, official statements, Twitter/X posts, and press conference transcripts covering 2017-2025. Five complementary theoretical frameworks structure the analysis - discourse analysis, enunciation theory, linguistic pragmatics, argumentative rhetoric, and critical discourse analysis - applied across five levels: lexical, enunciative, pragmatic, argumentative, and stylistic. The findings confirm all four hypotheses. Trump’s discourse replaces diplomatic courtesy with a centrality of the first person, personal attacks, and face-threatening acts, serving an ethos of the strong leader, protector, and fighter, sustained by a pathos of fear and national pride. Social media amplify this diplomacy of immediacy, while lexical simplification and binary oppositions spectacularize public debate. Far from accidental, this rupture proves to be a deliberate strategy of discursive chaos, with the Iranian case illustrating the use of maximal threat as a negotiating tool, and its exercise remaining a privilege of hegemonic powers. Ultimately, the Trumpian rupture reveals a lasting transformation of political communication in the digital age and calls for rethinking the boundary between domestic discourse and international diplomacy.
Donald Trump, diplomacy, discourse analysis, pragmatics, political communication, ethos, social networks, normative rupture.
Hyperbole in Donald Trump’s diplomatic language
Contemporary diplomatic language has long favoured lexical restraint and modal caution; Donald Trump's presidency, by contrast, has made hyperbole a central device of political communication, including in the most sensitive matters of foreign policy. The Iranian file marked by the unilateral American withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and, later, by the direct military escalation of Operations "Midnight Hammer" and "Epic Fury" (2025-2026) offers a particularly rich observation ground for examining this phenomenon over nearly a decade. This study aims to establish the extent to which hyperbole functions as an organising principle rather than a mere ornamental device of American diplomatic discourse on Iran, by identifying its recurrent forms, its internal stylistic structure, the argumentative and persuasive functions it fulfils, and the limits it encounters over time. Methodologically, the analysis draws on a qualitative corpus of statements attributed exclusively to Donald Trump himself tweets, Truth Social posts, televised addresses, press conferences and media interviews covering the period 2018-2026 and verified through cross-referencing of independent journalistic and institutional sources. Each retained statement is translated into French, broken down according to its lexical, syntactic and typographic markers, and then linked to a specific argumentative function, in light of both European argumentative rhetoric (Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, Charaudeau) and American, English and French scholarship on political language, diplomacy and the stylistics of hyperbole (Edelman, Ivie, Bostdorff, Schelling, George, Claridge, Fontanier, Kerbrat-Orecchioni). The expected findings are threefold. First, the study should confirm the existence of a stable typology of Trumpian hyperbole, organised around the registers of destruction, retribution, ultimatum and demonisation. Second, it should show that this device simultaneously fulfils a deterrent function directed at the adversary and a captation function directed at the domestic audience. Third, it should reveal, through internal contradictions and the sheer repetition of the device, a progressive and measurable erosion of the illocutionary credibility of presidential speech. Ultimately, this study contends that hyperbole, far from being a mere stylistic trait, provides an indispensable interpretive key to the tensions inherent in contemporary diplomacy, caught between short-term persuasive efficiency and the long-term weakening of official speech.
hyperbole, diplomatic discourse, argumentation, Donald Trump, Iran, ethos, pathos.
Diplomatic language as colonial memory: protocol, Gaullist rhetoric, and counter-discourse in Guy Menga's Case de Gaulle
This study focuses on "Diplomatic Language as Colonial Memory : Protocol, Gaullist Rhetoric, and Counter-Discourse in Case de Gaulle by Guy Menga." Adopting an approach that combines enunciation theory, pragmatics, and stylistics, our analysis demonstrates how the Congolese writer addresses the issue of official diplomatic discourse within the colonial context through his distinctive style. Indeed, Menga employs various literary expressions – integral to diplomatic language as a form of colonial memory – within his fictional work. These include, on the one hand, expressions linked to official proto-diplomatic mechanisms and the Gaullist rhetoric of emancipation – manifested through the pageantry of official visits and media language, the monument as a diplomatic act of commemoration, the conditional-permissive formula, the popular reception of de Gaulle as a messianic figure, and the revolutionary or Pan-African rhetoric associated with de Gaulle and Matsoua. On the other hand, they encompass elements related to diplomatic circumlocution and official colonial (counter)-discourse, such as the politics of broken promises and paternalistic colonial rhetoric, collaborationism and realism, internal critique, negotiation, and popular mediation. Thus, the specific features identified in the Congolese writer’s novel allow us to gauge his frequent use of literary expressions to articulate his imaginative vision, creating a style that aligns with his literary, linguistic, diplomatic, and stylistic aspirations.
discours, expression, langage diplomatique, mémoire coloniale, protocole, rhétorique gaullienne.
discourse, expression, diplomatic language, colonial memory, protocol, Gaullist rhetoric.
Breaking protocol: anticolonial rhetoric and diplomatic speech at Lumumba and Sankara
This article studies the speeches of Patrice Lumumba (1959, 1960) and Thomas Sankara (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987) as a shared corpus of African speech performed on the international diplomatic stage, despite the quarter-century gap and the different contexts separating the two speakers. It identifies and compares the rhetorical devices through which these two men, speaking from a position of institutional weakness, legitimately occupy solemn diplomatic platforms an independence ceremony, an interstate summit, a press interview, and a militant rally without fully submitting to the protocolary codes that ordinarily govern them. It also asks whether these devices reflect a stylistic constant specific to each speaker or a generic effect tied to the diplomatic situation of utterance itself. The method combines the tools of classical rhetoric (ethos, pathos, logos, performative speech acts) with those of postcolonially oriented critical discourse analysis, through a close reading of the five texts in the corpus, each situated in its immediate context of utterance: audience, place, occasion, and mode of transmission. The analysis shows that the ethos of both speakers rests less on protocolary legitimacy than on lived testimony and the concrete embodiment of their argument; that pathos, grounded in the enumeration of colonial suffering and in the notion of a “blood debt,” makes the affective neutrality required by diplomatic protocol difficult to sustain; that logos, organized around temporal or economic antitheses and performative acts involving the speaker’s own person, turns diplomatic discourse into a tool for exposing relations of domination; and that these devices amount to an internal subversion of protocol rather than an outright rejection of it. The result is a pan-African rhetoric of protocolary rupture, shared by both speakers despite differences of context, genre, and tone, which makes diplomatic speech an act of sovereignty proclaimed before the material conditions of that sovereignty have been fully secured.
diplomatic rhetoric; anticolonial discourse; Patrice Lumumba; Thomas Sankara; discourse analysis; oratorical ethos; pan-Africanism.
Multidimensional Analysis of the Closing Speech of Candidate Denis Sassou Nguesso: Between Stateism, Stability and Modernity
This article analyzes the multidimensional aspects of the closing speech of candidate Denis Sassous Nguesso to highlight the notions of statism, stability and modernity. Thus, the objective is to analyze the closing speech Dénis Sassous N'guesso, held on March 13, 2026. This discourse constitutes the highlighted data for our discourse analysis. To this end, our expected results are focused on five semantic parts of the presidential election speech of such a candidate accumulated experience in state management. These five multidimensional analyses have shown that the discourse of candidate Dénis Sassou N'Guesso conveys an informational message with political, philosophical, sociological, anthropological, academic and epistemological implications.
Statism, Stability, Modernity, Discursive attitudes, Election.
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The verb as a bearer of emotional education in lecture halls
: Speaking of the verb in the academic field seems obvious where teachers build generations of individuals capable of transforming the world. Such an undertaking cannot be achieved without this essential tool: language, which resonates through speech. Considering the complexity of human beings, it goes without saying that speech can take different forms and serve different purposes. Here, we propose to explore a beneficial use of it to support the psychological dimension of learners in the higher education system of Côte d'Ivoire. Indeed, it is a concrete matter of emphasizing the role of speech in the emotional education of our learners. Also, our article will lead us to answer the following questions: Does speech play a role in the implementation of emotional education? If so, what are its applications and manifestations? Furthermore, could it allow learners to develop resilience to the difficulties they face? In response to these questions, we hypothesize that speech plays an important role in this area, that it can alleviate learners' pain and that it can help develop resilience in learners. The objectives of this study are therefore to reveal the role of this faculty, its applications and manifestations, as well as to demonstrate the resilience it can bring to students.
Speech, Education, Learners, Emotional intelligence, Resilience.
Speech and rumor, an unequivocal reign in our societies
Speech and rumor are two realities inherent in human’s life. Also, their presence within our communities is not without drawbacks. Indeed, we make the sad observation that their vocations and qualities are so insidiously exploited, that they have become real executioners for society and its components. Thus, this communication, particularly deals with their role in our societies. In addition, it is responsible for exposing the challenges that they have in inter-human communicative acts. Besides, when resorting to human sciences, such as sociology, and philosophy, helps us to reveal them to the world as essential forces to which we will have to pay attention in our communicative reports ; because at the sametime that they are used by humans to inform or manipulate, their act in turn by impacting the life of these
Inform, Power, Influence, Communication, Emotion, Handling
Rumor Management in Spain and Ivory Coast: The Case of Granada and Abidjan
In Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan) and Spain (Granada), rumor management is handled differently due to distinct sociopolitical and media realities. In Granada, social media contributes significantly to the spread of rumors, and it is important to verify facts through specialized channels and by the authorities to combat misinformation. In contrast, in Abidjan, false information originates in small groups and is amplified by communication platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and others. In both cities, the relevant authorities are working to find solutions and put an end to the uncontrolled flow of rumors and unproven information. It is therefore crucial to implement appropriate strategies to manage the spread of false information while taking appropriate measures. How Granada and Abidjan are handling rumor in the face of the impact of social media? The objective of this article is to analyze the management of rumors in Abidjan and Grenada, and to reach this, it is important to highlight the theoretical frameworks allowing the establishment of axes and criteria for comparison
Rumor Management, Grenada, Abidjan, Social Media, Strategies
Speech : between muthos and logos in Oedipus the King by Sophocles
This article examines the tragic play Oedipus the King with a view to highlighting the opposition between two forms of verb: divinatory speech which has a supernatural and religious character and intellectual speech. Which intellectual speech is characterized by logos, that is to say rationality: giving tangible explanations to things that seem mysterious. We can thus notice that several characters embody this divide between prophetic discourse and “scientific” or rational discourse. On the one hand we have Oedipus who thinks he can understand the origin of the plague which strikes Thebes; on the other we have the soothsayer Tiresias whose words are inspired by the Olympian gods. Several other characters in the play can be studied to show that tragic speech in Sophocles bears the stamp of muthos and logos in Oedipus the King. The approach we have chosen is that of discourse analysis. This will help us understand and compare the different statements to see which ones fall within the framework of muthos, and which ones are linked to logos. We will also draw inspiration from mythocriticism since the play we are studying contains many mythical references which must be worth analyzing
Word, Muthos, Logos, Rationality, Tragedie
Political speech: between saying and doing
The political word, in its contextualization and in its expressive modalities, puts at the heart of its praxis the subscription to the challenges of its operationalization. Between sophism and pragmatism, political speech oscillates between lies and truth. The consubstantiality of saying and doing, in political communication, certainly summons the art of communication as an art of political manipulation. It also suggests, however, an ethics of governance rehabilitating political rhetoric. Thus, the current problem of the act of political communication cannot fail to take charge of modern subjectivity, the rational subject, the individual endowed with rights. This reflection on political speech, in the field of political communication, will be led to the philosophy of communication, in its historical variations while questioning the ethical issues it carries
Political word, Saying, Doing, Philosophy of communication, Ethics of communication
The literarization of speech in Jacques Prévert
According to Ferdinand de Saussure (1972, p.30) "The [linguistic] execution is never made by the mass; it is always individual, and the individual is always its master". This definition of speech makes it a personal use of language. The appropriation of language by the speaking subject is carried out both in daily transactions and in literary production where genres such as fiction, drama and poetry constitute particular types of speech; each having its own characteristics. In poetry, speech is characterized by its linguistic singularity dedicated to camouflaging the message. This characteristic is underpinned by a set of linguistic and/or rhetorical processes. Not departing from this tradition, the poetry of Jacques Prévert testifies to particular linguistic facts, notably the rhythmic structuration, the system of characterization and the mechanisms of phrastic organization. The present study, which exploits the methodological apparatuses of poetics and stylistics, aims to explore the processes that promote the emission of a poetic word in which the real message is discreetly encoded in the text
Word, Poetry, Literalization, Linguistic processes, Poetic processes